In a six-figure radio ad being released in Georgia today, Donald Trump Jr. tells the state’s voters that the U.S. Senate — and his father’s accomplishments — are on the line during January’s special election, Axios reports.
‘Game Change’ Co-Author Will Write Book on 2020 Race
The co-author of the million-selling Game Change has a book of his own coming about the 2020 election, the AP reports.
Simon & Schuster announced Monday that John Heilemann is working on a “dramatic, first-hand account” of Joe Biden’s victorious campaigns over his Democratic Party rivals in the primaries and over President Donald Trump in the general election.
Heilemann had collaborated with Mark Halperin on Game Change, about the 2008 race, and on Double Down, about 2012. Their anticipated book on 2016 was cancelled after Halperin faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment.
No, White Women Didn’t Vote for Trump
Jonathan Chait: “White women voted for Trump. Or so you have probably heard. In the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, the finding from early exit polls that 53 percent of white women voted for Trump formed the basis for a million social-media posts, op-eds, and rally placards. That this “fact” is not true is not even close to the biggest problem with its ubiquitous place in progressive social-justice discourse.”
“The 53 percent figure turned out to be erroneous, and corrected analyses eventually pegged Trump’s share of the white female electorate closer to 47 percent. Nonetheless, the impulse that propelled so many writers to blame white women for electing Trump proved strong enough to survive even after the factual basis was undercut. Indeed, left-wing opinion writers continued churning out polemics based on the erroneous 53 percent figure for years.”
Giuliani Seeking Pre-Emptive Pardon
“Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer who has led the most extensive efforts to damage his client’s political rivals and undermine the election results, discussed with the president as recently as last week the possibility of receiving a pre-emptive pardon before Mr. Trump leaves office,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Giuliani’s potential criminal exposure is unclear. He was under investigation as recently as last summer by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for his business dealings in Ukraine and his role in ousting the American ambassador there, a plot that was at the heart of the impeachment of Mr. Trump.”
The Fix: Here’s who a lame-duck Trump could pardon.
Another Pentagon Official Ousted
“The Pentagon policy official overseeing the military’s efforts to combat the Islamic State was fired on Monday after a White House official told him the United States had won that war and that his office had been disbanded,” the New York Times reports.
A Roaring Recovery Is In Sight
Neil Irwin: “For the first time since the pandemic shuttered the economy eight months ago, the end is in sight.”
“The development of vaccines that appear to be safe, effective and ready for wide distribution in the months ahead means it’s now possible to envision a post-Covid economy by summer.”
“There is a distinct possibility that the economy could roar back to full health quickly as soon as public health conditions allow. But for that to happen, the United States will need to make it through what might be a cold, dark winter in which damage could be done to the tissue of the economy that prevents that rapid healing.”
The Lucrative Afterlife of a Trump Official
American Prospect: “For many in the political establishment, joining the Trump administration was initially considered to be a mark of shame. In 2016, more than 100 Republican staffers signed a Never-Trump letter.”
“Trump alumni may have worried that they might struggle to find new jobs in Washington or Silicon Valley or Wall Street. (And certainly a lot of people have cycled out given the administration’s record turnover.) But almost universally, former Trump appointees are profiting from their time in the White House. Even before Trump concedes the election and leaves the White House, they have been normalized.”
“Despite those initial expectations of a Trump stigma, it’s in fact the people who quit in protest who have suffered most.”
Few Consequences for Attacking American Democracy
Quinta Jurecic: “Donald Trump will not serve a second term. The litigation launched by his campaign and the Republican Party to overturn the election results has no chance of preventing Joe Biden from swearing the oath of office on January 20—as Trump himself seemed to haltingly recognize last week after his administration finally allowed the presidential transition to begin.”
“But even though the worst has not come to pass, Trump and his team are doing lasting damage to American democracy as the president struggles to come to grips with the reality of his loss. And yet, these lawyers and officials will likely face no real consequences for their actions—and if they do, those repercussions will not be enough to address the scale of the problem.”
Something Fishy In Edison County
A witness in Sidney Powell’s new Michigan lawsuit challenging President Trump’s loss in the state says in a declaration he thinks there’s something fishy about election returns in Edison County, Michigan.
Bridge Michigan notes one problem: There is no Edison County in Michigan.
GOP Silence on Trump Recalls McCarthy Era
Ron Brownstein: “The silence of congressional Republican leaders as President Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud grow wilder and more venomous increasingly resembles the party’s deference to Sen. Joe McCarthy during the worst excesses of his anti-Communist crusade in the early 1950s.”
“In McCarthy’s era, most of the GOP’s leaders found excuses to avoid challenging conspiracy theories that they knew to be implausible, even as evidence of their costs to the nation steadily mounted. For years, despite their private doubts about his charges and methods alike, the top GOP leadership — particularly Senate Republican leader Robert A. Taft, the Mitch McConnell of his day — either passively abetted or actively supported McCarthy’s scattershot claims of treason and Communist infiltration.”
“A significant faction of Senate Republicans didn’t join with Democrats to curb McCarthy’s power until the senator immolated himself with his accusations, in highly publicized 1953 and 1954 hearings, that the Army was riddled with Communists during the presidency of fellow Republican Dwight Eisenhower.”
Bipartisan Group Will Propose $908 Billion In Relief
“A bipartisan group of senators is expected to unveil an approximately $908 billion stimulus proposal on Tuesday, aiming to break a months-long partisan impasse over providing emergency federal relief to the U.S. economy,” the Washington Post reports.
GOP Lawmakers In Ohio Try to Impeach DeWine
“While trying to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has faced throngs of armed protesters at the statehouse and crowds outside his own home. Now, he is now facing efforts from within his own party to push him out of office entirely,” the Washington Post reports.
“A group of four Republican state lawmakers filed a dozen articles of impeachment against DeWine on Monday, saying the governor violated state and federal laws by requiring face masks in public and ordering some businesses to close.”
Democrats Have the Digital Machine They Need to Win
Joshua Green: “Many Democrats have spent the weeks since the election bickering about who’s to blame for a result that ousted President Trump but also saw the party fall short in its efforts to gain strength in Congress and statehouses.”
“The debate has obscured one area of unquestionable Democratic success: In the four years since Trump’s election, progressives have built an organizing and fundraising behemoth, which just delivered a record 80 million votes for President-elect Joe Biden. Democrats’ fortunes in the Biden era and beyond will hinge on whether they can maintain and grow this juggernaut.”
Virus Has Been In U.S. for Nearly a Year
“The new coronavirus infected people in the U.S. in mid-December 2019, a few weeks before it was officially identified in China and about a month earlier than public health authorities found the first U.S. case,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The findings significantly strengthen evidence suggesting the virus was spreading around the world well before public health authorities and researchers became aware, upending initial thinking about how early and quickly it emerged.”
Economic Outlook ‘Extremely Uncertain’
Jay Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, has warned Congress that the rise in coronavirus cases could “prove challenging for the next few months” even as encouraging news on vaccine development has boosted the outlook for the economy in the medium-term, the Financial Times reports.
The Fed chairman stressed that the economic outlook remained “extraordinarily uncertain” — a phrase he has used throughout the pandemic.
Too Early for GOP Predictions In 2022
Stuart Rothenberg: “Republicans are already sounding as if they intend to make 2022 about socialism, illegal immigrants and anarchists in the suburbs. But if the economy is strong, COVID-19 is in the rear-view mirror and Biden is popular, the midterm election might well favor the status quo.”
“Though House Republicans have reasons for optimism, nothing is now guaranteed about the political landscape of 2022 — especially since a bitter, defeated Trump is likely to want the limelight during the next few years.”
Trump Steps Up Fundraising In Aftermath of Defeat
“President Trump has raised about $170 million since Election Day as his campaign operation has continued to aggressively solicit donations with hyped-up appeals that have funded his fruitless attempts to overturn the election and that have seeded his post-presidential political ambitions,” the New York Times reports.
“Instead of slowing down after the election, Mr. Trump’s campaign has ratcheted up its volume of email solicitations for cash, telling supporters that money was needed for an ‘Election Defense Fund.’ In reality, the fine print shows that the first 75 percent of every contribution currently goes to a new political action committee that Mr. Trump set up in mid-November, Save America, which can be used to fund his political activities going forward, including staff and travel. The other 25 percent of each donation is directed to the Republican National Committee.”
Neera Tanden Under Attack
Playbook: “It’s too early to declare Tanden’s nomination to be the director of OMB dead, but man, is she taking a lot of incoming. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said Tanden is ‘radioactive,’ and said it was a ‘misstep’ by the Biden team to plan to nominate her. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) — the No. 2 Senate Republican — said she’s been very ‘partisan’ in her assessment of Republican senators, who will now have to vote for her. “I’m not, you know, disqualifying anybody, but I do think that it gets a lot harder obviously if they send folks from their, you know, progressive left that are kind of out of the mainstream. And, but, you know, if and when the time comes, we’ll obviously hopefully be able to consult with them and then, if they send people here that are qualified, give them a fair process.”
“Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — the likely chair of the Budget Committee should Republicans keep the majority — suggested that Tanden may not even get a committee vote.”
Politico: Bernieworld seethes over Tanden.
